Are you currently looking for a UX role? Wondering how you can showcase your expertise and stand out from the other applicants during the interview process?
Interviews can feel daunting—and doing them remotely can add an extra layer of complexity to the process. But keep in mind that if you’ve made it to the interview stage, the company genuinely sees something in your application and hopes you’re the answer to their hiring needs.
Whether you're applying for your first UX position, or brushing up on interview skills for the next step in your career, use this article as your interview preparation guide.
In this article, we’re covering:
- Tip 1: Become Familiar With the Common Types of UX Interview Questions
- Tip 2: Practice Presenting Your UX Design Portfolio
- Tip 3: Be Prepared for Design Challenges
- Tip 4: Be Prepared for Remote vs. In Person UX Design Interviews
- Tip 5: Apply Remote Interview Best Practices
- Interview Prep Checklist
- Key Takeaways
… let’s get started.
Tip 1: Become Familiar With the Common Types of UX Interview Questions
Once you’ve obtained the necessary UX skills and created your UX portfolio, you’ll then need to know how to prepare for a UX interview. Learning and practicing your unique responses to the most common UX interview questions can help you go into any interview with confidence—and hopefully come out with a job offer!
Overall, there are typically 5 types of questions asked in a UX interview:
- Basic screening questions
- Technical UX design questions
- UX design process questions
- Culture fit & working style questions
- Curveballs
![UX interview tip number one includes the five types of interview questions](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65130e79c72ae8812db3412e/656fd82b9903fa1b2c92e201_c8a9102ce91260506444ede06f6ef6a6.webp)
Take copious notes on these common questions, and get a better understanding of how to talk about yourself and your work. If you’re enrolled in UX Academy, you’ll practice these questions with your Career Coach in Career Services.
Type 1: Basic Screening Questions
Before most face-to-face interviews—which may be conducted in person or via video call—a recruiter or Human Resources manager will probably ask some basic questions to get more insight into who you are and how you approach your design work. Here are the kinds of question you’re likely to encounter during the screening process:
- Tell me about yourself.
- What tools do you use?
- What is your process and approach to UX Design?
- How did you get into UX Design? What’s your interest in the field?
Type 2: Technical UX Questions
In the second phase of most interview processes, the questions get more technical and focus on your detailed knowledge and understanding of issues in UX design. Here are some more examples of questions to expect:
- Can you explain what “User Experience Design” means, using non-technical terminology?
- Describe your design process, and the methods you use.
- What are some apps or websites that you love?
- Who are your design heroes? What are your favorite apps for UX? Explain why.
For any of these technical questions, the interviewer will pay attention to how well you demonstrate an understanding of the overarching goals and process of UX design work, as well as an understanding of the specific components, such as the role UX research plays in your approach to design. (Just because the question doesn't specifically address a topic, doesn't mean you can't talk about it).
Type 3: UX Process Questions
These questions are asked to elicit information about how you approach design problems. By this stage of the hiring process, the hiring manager probably already has a good idea of the final results you can execute from studying your portfolio. What they need to know now is how you got there, and how well you can explain the process you followed.
Give some thought to how you would answer each of these questions:
- How do you get into the mindset of a user and anticipate their needs and actions?
- Describe a basic UX design process. Would that process be different depending on the type of project, for instance responsive website versus mobile app?
- What are the basic philosophies or principles that inform your designs?
- Tell us more about your user research methodologies
- Have you incorporated usability into the design and testing process?
Type 4: Culture Fit & Working Style Questions
One important, and often overlooked, aspect of the hiring process is ensuring a candidate fits into the company with little-to-no friction. Interviewers will ask a series of questions pertaining to your working style to determine if you're a good fit to join the team.
Below is a list of questions likely to come up:
- Why do you want to work here?
- Why should I hire you?
- Do you prefer to work alone or with a team?
- Tell me about an assignment that was too difficult. How did you handle the situation?
Type 5: Curveballs
Although they’re often called curveballs, these questions are really just about how you’d handle certain tricky situations—either hypothetically, or by talking about an example from the past. Most of the time, the questions will still stay relevant to UX design, but they may also be more open and generic.
- Tell me about a UX project you’ve worked on that didn’t go as well as you’d hoped.
- Can you describe a time when the requirements changed in the middle of a project, and how you handled that?
- Have you ever faced a situation in which your feedback/recommendation was not taken? How did you handle the situation?
- Give me an instance where you delivered something exceptional, something that made you really proud of the result.
Looking for more in-depth guidance into interview questions? Check out these 9 Common Interview Questions for UX Designers … and tips for answering each question in a way that gets to the heart of what the interviewer might be looking for.
![UX interview tips 9 questions](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65130e79c72ae8812db3412e/656fd82b9903fa1b2c92e235_a2f5192cec80aee3e12bcc34c147f0db.webp)
Tip 2: Practice Presenting Your UX Portfolio
Your portfolio plays an integral role in your hireability as a UX designer. While many hiring managers will review your portfolio on their own time, it’s important to also prepare for a live presentation of the projects during your interview process.
When constructing your portfolio, focus on quality over quantity and highlight the projects that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. During the interview, you’ll want to explain your design process in detail and be prepared with any questions or challenges that arose amid the project’s development.
Most importantly, don't forget to practice presenting your portfolio out loud beforehand—your poise and confidence will go a long way!
Learn more: How to Make a UX Design Portfolio: Tips and Examples To Help You Stand Out
Tip 3: Be Prepared for Design Challenges
Many companies now include design challenges as part of the interview process. You’ll likely be given a set amount of time to complete a project, and then will be asked questions about your approach during a live UX interview.
Here are the main questions employers will be asking themselves when reviewing your work:
- How do they define the problem?
- Do they understand user goals and tasks?
- Do they make space for user research in their process?
- Do they think visually and generate many ideas before narrowing down a solution?
- Can they articulate their design process?
- Can they critique their own work?
While it can definitely be helpful to practice design challenges (using prompts from UXchallenge or Sharpen), UX Academy alumni Michael Donlea shared that he was presented with a whiteboard challenge for the final step of his interview process.
“I had never done [a design challenge] before, but knew they were commonplace in the design industry, so I spent a couple of days reading Artiom Dashinsky’s Solving Product Design Exercises. I cannot stress how helpful this was,” he shares.
![UX interview tip by Michael Donlea](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65130e79c72ae8812db3412e/656fd82b9903fa1b2c92e23b_eea2bec19bab318172b75f766ed60fee.webp)
Tip 4: Be Prepared For Remote vs. In Person UX Design Interviews
While some jobs (particularly for a local, in-person role), the UX design interview process might require you to go to a physical location and interview.
However, remote interviews have become the standard. 82% of employers have reported that they utilized remote interviews for the pandemic—and what's more revealing: 93% of employers intend to continue using remote interviews. This benefits them, as they're able to pull in more talent than would otherwise be available in physical interview settings.
It can also benefit you, as the job seeker, since you're able to really tailor your job search to align with your strengths and career goals, rather than just the distance you're willing to commute to.
Job interviews will likely continue to be conducted remotely for the foreseeable future. This can cause feelings of relief for some, and added anxiety for others.
For the most part, the same rules that apply to in-person interviewing are applicable to remote interviewing too. Keep these best practices top of mind throughout your upcoming interviews.